Died this day

Sodomy in history, June

7

1919 — A California appellate court upholds the sodomy conviction of a man. The mother of his consenting partner had drilled holes in his bedroom walls to watch.

1937 — Colorado increases the minimum fine for possession of sex toys and requires defendants to pay all court costs.

1972 — The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals rules that consensual sodomy is a "crime involving moral turpitude" within the meaning of federal law permitting deportation of any alien convicted of such a crime. The case is brought by a man convicted of sodomy with a woman.

1973 — The Nevada Supreme Court upholds the right of the state to prosecute heterosexual cunnilingus under the "crime against nature" law. In 1914, it said at lease one male must be involved, so this decision gives Lesbians a solitary exemption from the law.

1975 — New Hampshire passes a new sexual assault law and includes a repeal of the consensual sodomy law that is not noticed for a year after passage. The repeal of the sodomy law is well hidden in the law and is signed by homophobic Governor Meldrim Thomson, who does not learn of the repeal for a year afterward.

Died this day

Sodomy in history, June

6

1671 — Plymouth Colony exempts males under 14 and forced parties from the death penalty for sodomy.

1940 — Congress amends the Assimilative Crimes Act to absorb state laws enacted through February 1, 1940. The first revision since 1933, this makes oral sex on federal property in three additional states.

1950 — The New Hampshire Supreme Court rejects the contention that the 1949 "psychopathic offender" law repealed the state’s sodomy law.

1979 — The Ohio Supreme Court upholds the state’s law prohibiting the "offensive" solicitation of a person of the same sex. The Court says that homosexuality was accepted in the Dark Ages and Victorian times, but not in the modern, sexually liberated world.

1986 — Hawaii revises the conflict in its age of consent law by lowering the age for all activity to 14.

2001 — Estonia equalizes the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sex.

Sodomy in history,

June 4

1812 — The Organic Act for the Missouri Territory receives the 1805 Louisiana sodomy statute, with a compulsory sentence of life imprisonment at hard labor.

1894 — The Georgia Supreme Court reverses the sodomy conviction of a boy "under 14" due to questionable evidence. It does not challenge the right of the state to prosecute those of his age as adults.

1908 — The Iowa Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction against a challenge that one of the jurors on the case on his own visited the toilet where the crime was alleged to have occurred.

1936 — The Michigan Supreme Court rules that fellatio can not be prosecuted under the state’s "crime against nature" law with a 15-year maximum penalty, but must be prosecuted under the "gross indecency" law with a 5-year maximum penalty.

1979 — North Carolina changes the fine for the "crime against nature" from unspecified to $5,000.

1980 — Puerto Rico amends its "crime against nature" law to set a 6-year fixed penalty, but to allow a range of 20-99 years if a habitual felon. The range is set at 4-10 years for unspecified mitigating or aggravating factors.

1949 — A Georgia appellate court overturns a sodomy conviction because the indictment did not specify how the defendant was alleged to have committed the act.

1959 — The Louisiana Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction even though one trial juror violated a court order and discussed the case with a witness.

1961 — The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a deportation order against an alien for loitering for solicitation for sodomy. It says that "simple assault" would not make him eligible for deportation.

1972 — The Maryland Commission on Criminal Law publishes a proposed criminal code that recommends decriminalization of consensual sodomy with an age of consent of 19. The commission’s comments demonstrate that they believe sodomy is something only Gay men ever commit.

1977 — Nebraska passes a new criminal code over the veto of the Governor that includes repeal of the state’s sodomy law.

1993 — A federal judge in Pennsylvania overturns the lewdness conviction of a man for soliciting an undercover federal agent in a national park, saying the agent led him on.